Undercover officer under reviewafter small arsenal stolen from car[Arlington, TX]

PoliceOne Staff Report(ARLINGTON, Texas) -- An undercover Garland police officer is under review after someone stole a small arsenal from his car while it was parked in front of a local restaurant.

Garland police told the Arlington Morning News that a fully automatic M-16 rifle, 850 rounds of ammunition, three handguns, rifle scopes, body armor, a police radio and binoculars were taken about noon on Jan. 5 from the parking lot of On the Border restaurant in Arlington.

"These were narcotics officers who had just finished an investigation in Arlington and were heading back to Garland," Lt. Joel Bettes, Garland public information officer, told the News.

"It will all be looked at by us. Our internal affairs will look at it, and at least the supervisor of that division will see if anything needs to be changed to see what should have been done differently," Bettes was quoted as saying.

Because the officer works undercover, his name is being withheld, but he remains on active duty. Authorities would not say how the weapons were secured.

Arlington Police Sgt. James Hawthorne told the News that he did not think the theft was related to the seven prisoners that escaped a maximum-security prison in Kenedy.